Jittery velocity relaxation of an elastic sphere immersed in a viscous incompressible fluid

Abstract: Velocity relaxation of an elastic sphere immersed in a viscous incompressible fluid is studied on the basis of the equations of linear elasticity and the linearized Navier-Stokes equations. It is found that both translational motion after a sudden impulse and rotational motion after a sudden twist show jittery behavior in the long-time regime, with many reversals of velocity if the sphere is sufficiently flexible. In the extreme long-time regime the translational and rotational velocity relaxation functions each decay with a universal algebraic long-time tail. The added mass and the added moment of inertia of the sphere are found to vanish.